Chapter Summaries

Li Ye visited Yuan Yan at the Carefree Tree Abode and realized that the Yuan Sheng Deer, Carefree Spirit City, and Heartfelt Melody could be combined to cultivate new species. With Yuan Yan's blood and help from the Beavers, he created the Carefree Granary, which grew and stored the Five Grains, though its nature remained uncertain.

• Li Ye explored Profound Street, answered outer-sect disciples' questions, and studied its formations before reaching Yuan Yan's Carefree Tree Abode.
• Yuan Yan explained that Yuan Sheng Deer blood could join different spirit plants, prompting Li Ye to connect the deer, Carefree Spirit City, and Heartfelt Melody to the Mountain Spirit method.
• Li Ye asked Yuan Yan for a Carefree Spirit City seed and his blood, then summoned the Beavers to shape a granary prototype from Formless Spirit Mud.
• Li Ye planted the seed, grafted the Five Grains to Carefree Spirit City using Yuan Yan's blood, and bound five granaries to it with Lady Xiang's spirituality.
• Carefree Spirit City transformed into a Carefree Granary that grew and harvested the Five Grains into vast stores, leaving Li Ye unsure whether it was a spirit plant, spirit beast, material, or deity.

Li Ye brought the Carefree Granary to East Cang Town, where its residents cultivated its five grains and enjoyed food that eased their illnesses. Years later, the grains came alive and ran toward the light, leaving the townspeople stunned.

• The Sect Leader saw merit surge around Li Ye's name, and Compassionate Embrace went to investigate the Carefree Granary.
• Yuan Yan recognized Li Ye's power and agreed to become his subordinate in exchange for protection and a monthly blood sample arrangement.
• Compassionate Embrace gave Li Ye Cihui Spirit Wheat and a vitality orb for cultivating blood spirits, and Li Ye considered planting and crossbreeding the deity's grains.
• Li Ye brought the Carefree Granary to East Cang Town and invited its residents to farm inside it, where their harvests were processed and stored automatically.
• The townspeople grew accustomed to tending the fields and found that eating the granary's food eased their hidden ailments.
• Years later, Brother Du saw a soybean plant walk away, and the five grains streamed out of the granary toward the light.

The five grains took root in East Cang Town’s homes as protective deities, while Li Ye learned that the Earth Book had chosen them to extend its power. He inspected his experimental Dang Kang Flower Ginseng Piglet and returned to the Ink-Wash World, where Wen awakened in a newly formed body.

• The five grains entered the townspeople’s homes, promised protection, and gave children nourishing fruits.
• Li Ye realized the Earth Book had chosen the five grains as its first deities and saw the Xiang River Abode’s power taking shape.
• Li Ye examined the Dang Kang Flower Ginseng Piglet, a spirit beast he had created to help transform polluted land, and decided to show it to his elders.
• In the Ink-Wash World, the White Fox fawned over Li Ye and offered to eat the Black Cat, but Li Ye ordered it to take care of the cat instead.
• Li Ye found that Wen’s Ink Wash Gold Sand Body had formed, and he told the newly awakened Wen that Wei was happy and that Wen might someday take a wife and have children.

Li Ye heard the first portion of the Bagua Spirit Turtle’s Dao Sound and returned to his cave abode to seek treasures for the Beavers’ apprenticeship gifts. There, he discovered that the Flint Crystal Worms were sacrificing their lives to transform the golden-red seedlings beneath the Silver Moon Grass.

• Li Ye learned that Wen Fanyan’s descendant would need about twelve more years to mature, then left the White Fox to watch over Wen.
• Perfected Person Yun Ming unlocked the turtle’s Kun trigram, and its Dao Sound bestowed the spring portion of the Treatise on the Four Qi Regulating the Spirit upon Li Ye.
• Li Ye learned that another turtle seal would take twelve years to unlock and decided to return to the sect in search of jade stones that could help accelerate time.
• Li Ye returned to his cave abode, where he found a jade slip saying Perfected Person Bo Shi wanted to take the five Beavers as his locking-the-door disciples.
• Li Ye went to the snowy spiritual land to choose a gift and discovered that the Flint Crystal Worms had poured their vitality into the golden-red seedlings, with two already dead and three near death.

After grieving the apparent deaths of the Flint Crystal Worms, Li Ye discovered that they and the Silver Moon Grass could transform through tribulation, and he helped them forge Demon Cores while preserving their freedom. They emerged as wandering flames, while a wisp of the worms’ true spirits remained at Du Su Mountain, giving Li Ye hope that he could bring them back.

• Li Ye could not find the departed soul essences of the Flint Crystal Worms, and Spirit Vine explained that they had merged into the land.
• Li Ye discovered that three Flint Crystal Worms were tempering their Flintfire to form Demon Cores, so he used the Heartfelt Melody and the Beaver’s Lotus Lantern to help them and the Silver Moon Grass.
• Wangshu offered her favor and Eastern Lord offered to take the Flint Crystal Worms as kin, but Li Ye insisted that they should remain free to choose their own paths.
• The Flint Crystal Worms and Silver Moon Grass passed their tribulation, formed Demon Cores, and transformed into free-moving flames; their transformation also produced a Wind Light Flame Moon Flower.
• Li Ye saw in Eastern Lord’s gift a vision of Du Su Mountain and learned that a wisp of the two Flint Crystal Worms’ true spirits had gone there, so he decided to seek a way to bring them back.

After the sect confirmed that Li Ye’s Dang Kang Flower Ginseng Piglet could purify contaminated soil and reproduce, it sent him and eighteen Foundation Establishment cultivators to Bitter Journey Academy. There, Li Ye entered a black-and-white Grotto-Heaven where ink-wash contamination resisted his methods, and he suspected it was connected to his Heartscape Illusion.

• Li Ye presented the Dang Kang Flower Ginseng Piglet, and the Spirit Plant and Spirit Beast Halls confirmed it could restore barren soil and reproduce by growing piglets inside ginseng roots.
• The sect leader ordered Li Ye to lead eighteen cultivators to Bitter Journey Academy to investigate contaminated Grotto-Heavens, promising him an opportunity to enter Du Su Mountain if he succeeded.
• Li Ye, Senior Brother Su Ya, and their party traveled along the Azure Cloud Road and met Lu Qingge at Bitter Journey Academy.
• Lu Qingge brought Li Ye alone into an ink-wash Grotto-Heaven, where Li Ye felt the contamination draining his life and turning his body toward paper.
• Li Ye’s Earth Wish Art failed, and the piglet briefly purified the soil before the ink-wash contamination returned; as he collected soil, Li Ye suspected the Grotto-Heaven was linked to his Heartscape Illusion.

Li Ye discovered that the contaminated grotto-heaven soil contained unfamiliar blood, then used his Lesser World to create an Ink Wash Sprite from it. Rong Yuewei of Bitter Journey Academy’s Spirit Demon Repository invited Li Ye to meet an elder and revealed that the spiritual scrolls might be connected to Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

• Su Ya explained that Bitter Journey Academy’s Spirit Demon Repository housed spirits whose advancement depended on Sage Books and human cultivators.
• A disciple found unfamiliar blood mixed into the contaminated soil, and Li Ye sent its spiritual power structure and their deductions to the Four Seasons Sect.
• Li Ye used his Lesser World to transform the soil’s blood into an Ink Wash Sprite, then bound it to a Wax Plum that became an ink-wash plum blossom.
• Rong Yuewei arrived and confirmed that the grotto-heaven contamination involved Spirit Demons, then invited Li Ye to the Spirit Demon Repository.
• Rong Yuewei asked whether Li Ye possessed the Bamboo and Locust spiritual scrolls and said they were linked to the strange book Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

Li Ye helped Di Sui purify the ink-wash grotto-heaven with his wax plum and arranged for mulberries and silkworms to be raised there. Di Sui then forced out the Bookworm Sprites hidden in the grotto-heaven, revealing that they had been consuming a fragment of the Plum Spirit Scroll.

• Li Ye followed Rong Yue Wei into the Spirit Demon Repository, where Guan Yan Zai invited him to study the Sage Book at Bitter Journey Academy.
• Di Sui dismissed Lu Qingge’s suspicions about the Spirit Demon Repository and gave Li Ye the pages of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio as compensation for past wrongs.
• Li Ye played the Heartfelt Melody for Di Sui, who explained that he wanted to make amends for the damage caused by a junior of the Painting Dao and a True Person of the Four Seasons Sect.
• Di Sui opened an ink-wash grotto-heaven, and Li Ye’s wax plum absorbed the ink wash and purified dozens of mu of land.
• Li Ye recommended planting Radiant Dawn Spirit Mulberries and raising Voidink Spirit Silkworms, and Di Sui agreed to the plan.
• Di Sui summoned the Bookworm Sprites from the grotto-heaven and destroyed them with a Ginkgo leaf, leaving behind a fragmentary page from the Plum Spirit Scroll.

Li Ye settled the Four Seasons Sect’s business with the Sect Leader and joined Su Ya at Bitter Journey Academy, where they watched Confucian scholars awaken a hidden spirit plant. While helping them find Thousand Illusion Drunken Mushrooms, Li Ye discovered that Human Script Conferment used the academy’s Fortune and Merit to make spirit plants count as humans.

• Li Ye told the Sect Leader what had happened, received permission to handle matters at Bitter Journey Academy, and asked the Sect to send disciples to help the Ink Wash Sprite and Dang Kang Flower Ginseng Piglet reproduce.
• Li Ye and Su Ya entered a primordial cave-heaven with Bitter Journey Academy scholars and used the Drunken Light Spirit Clam to detect hidden wine and reveal the Thousand Illusion Drunken Mushroom.
• A white-robed female scholar recited a Sage Book to awaken a mushroom, which gained the Human Script Conferment name and produced a cup of wine that inspired her to complete a Magic Treasure painting scroll.
• Li Ye proposed using the Heartfelt Melody and his Heartscape Illusion method to help the scholars find mushrooms and paint in the cave-heaven, and they agreed.
• Li Ye used the Heartfelt Melody and the Drunken Light Spirit Clam to help the scholars find and awaken more mushrooms, sensing that the Human Seal lent them the academy’s Fortune and Merit so heaven and earth would recognize them as humans.

After bitter wine and the Sea of Learning stirred the Gla.s.s Bracelet, Li Ye engraved ancient Sage Book lines into the Sun-Moon Rings and transformed his Lesser World. He then tried to awaken the Calamity Fire with the same words and merit, but faced a Heavenly Tribulation and ran short of merit until Su Ya offered him the Four Seasons Harmony token.

• Li Ye played the Heartfelt Melody to awaken more Thousand Illusion Drunken Mushrooms, then drank the bitter wine and gained a surge of inspiration.
• A sudden Heavenly Thunder isolated the grotto-heaven, and the Headmaster ordered the academy to pour the Sea of Learning into it to repay a favor.
• The Gla.s.s Bracelet, the Sun-Moon Rings, and the Sea of Learning stirred Li Ye's understanding of two lines from Heaven's Questions, which he carved into the rings over seven months.
• The new Dao laws gave Li Ye's Lesser World a sun-and-moon cycle and expanded it from one mu to nearly ten thousand mu.
• Li Ye tried to awaken the Calamity Fire with Sage Book lines and Jianmu's merit, but a Heavenly Tribulation formed and the merit proved insufficient.
• Su Ya offered Li Ye a gray token inscribed Four Seasons Harmony.

Li Ye used merit and the scholars’ help to awaken the Calamity Fire’s spirit, which named itself Ming Zhao. After the tribulation ended, Di Sui and Xiang Huai enlisted Li Ye and his Drunken Light Spirit Clam to brew Bitter Calamity Wine, leaving the academy’s scholars—and Xiang Huai’s mysterious disciple-granddaughter—making vats from Calamity Ash.

• Li Ye and the scholars resisted the silent Heavenly Tribulation while he used merit and Heaven’s Questions to awaken the Calamity Fire’s spirituality.
• The newly born Tribulation Fire Spirit chose the name Ming Zhao and settled trustingly into Li Ye’s palm.
• Di Sui and Xiang Huai appeared, and Xiang Huai asked Li Ye to help make Bitter Calamity Wine using a brewing method written on a page of Sea of Learning Water.
• Li Ye’s Drunken Light Spirit Clam recognized the wine and agreed to brew it, while Xiang Huai supplied one hundred thousand jin of Calamity Ash.
• The scholars enthusiastically shaped Calamity Ash and Sea of Learning Water into wine vats, gaining spiritual energy as they worked.
• Xiang Huai’s young disciple-granddaughter joined the vat-making, and Li Ye wondered whether the familiar girl was Xiang Huai herself in disguise.

Li Ye learned that Bitter Journey Academy’s wine-making method also served as a Painting Dao technique and agreed to learn it from Di Sui. After the wine jars were sealed, Di Sui gave Li Ye a Heavenly Color Stone Carving as a test, and Li Ye immediately tried painting it with a powdered bead from his Gla.s.s Bracelet.

• Xiang Huai showed the beavers how to mix Calamity Ash and Sea of Learning Water, while Di Sui explained that she followed the Painting Dao and that the wine ingredients could serve as pigments.
• Di Sui told Li Ye that Hell Dao used murals to grow evil ghosts and wronged souls, explained that he had imprisoned the previous Academy Head, and offered to teach Li Ye the Painting Dao method.
• The scholars finished making wine jars, and Xiang Huai gave the beavers a token to help them shed their demon aura when forming Golden Cores.
• Xiang Huai placed beating hearts into the jars, and Li Ye used the Drunken Light Spirit Clam, Compassionate Wheat, and Tribulation Fire to seal them, leaving the spirit clam gravely weakened.
• Di Sui gave Li Ye a Heavenly Color Stone Carving and said it would teach him the method if he colored its lotus using the essences of things; Li Ye ground a bead from his Gla.s.s Bracelet and applied it to the carving.

Li Ye began painting with the Heavenly Dao’s azure pigment and learned he would need eight equally prestigious colors, while Di Sui pointed him toward spirit scrolls in the Southern Domain. After advancing the grotto-heavens’ restoration and visiting Bitter Journey Academy’s market, Li Ye discovered that the panel might let him unite all seven varieties of Wenxing Bamboo.

• Li Ye used the Gla.s.s Bracelet’s pigment to color a lotus petal azure, and Di Sui warned that the remaining eight pigments had to be of equal standing.
• Di Sui told Li Ye that the academy’s ink-wash spirit scroll would eventually be his and that the Orchid and Chrysanthemum scrolls were likely book spirits in the Southern Domain’s Demon Race territory.
• Li Ye inspected the polluted grotto-heaven, tested several divine abilities against the Ink Wash, and continued its restoration with the help of spirit plants and beasts.
• Lu Qingge invited Li Ye to tour the academy’s spirit plants, and the two met Su Ya at Tianmo Small Market.
• Li Ye examined Celestial Balance Wenxing Bamboo and realized his panel suggested he could unite all seven varieties through the Carefree Granary.

Li Ye negotiated with Bitter Journey Academy to address Wenxing Bamboo’s flaw and signed a sect contract committing himself to improve it. After securing extensive supplies and a garden residence, he remained at the academy while planning to avoid returning to his sect until he knew how its leaders would react.

• Li Ye recognized that Wenxing Bamboo’s flaw involved its inability to withstand true starlight and offered to solve it in exchange for cooperation between Bitter Journey Academy and the Four Seasons Sect.
• Lu Qingge brought Li Ye and Su Ya to Ripple Moon Teahouse, where Li Ye discovered the pavilion was a spirit creature connected to the Nine Songs.
• Su Ya expressed concern about the risks of a binding sect contract, but Li Ye reassured him and asked him to stay at the academy to share in the merit.
• The academy sent Li Ye spiritual plants representing the Four Treasures of Study, and he identified Myriad Sinking Bamboo and Still Ink Moss as plants he could bind.
• Zhuge Ce met Li Ye, presented a contract, and witnessed him sign it with a Four Seasons Sect token.
• Li Ye requested one thousand plants of each of the seven grades of Wenxing Bamboo, seven Literary Dragon Turtles, ten thousand of each of the four study-related spiritual plants, and a garden residence.

Li Ye arranged seven Wenxing Bamboo according to the Big Dipper and triggered a spring of starlight water that could temporarily erase beings from the registry of fate. As the Literary Dragon Turtle entered the spring and Tianquan Wenxing Bamboo asked for the Sage Book, the darkness outside swallowed Jianmu's spatial barrier and flooded into Li Ye's Jian Tree World.

• The Four Seasons Sect Leader gave Su Xing Zhenren the Sect Leader Seal so he could negotiate better terms with Di Sui over Li Ye's contract with Bitter Journey Academy.
• Li Ye settled into a garden residence, unfolded Jianmu Space, and projected his Lesser World to inspect the Wenxing Bamboo and other supplies Bitter Journey Academy had delivered.
• Li Ye discovered the Wenxing Bamboo's starlight rings were integral to their power and used the Heartfelt Melody to investigate the seven stars.
• Li Ye arranged the seven Wenxing Bamboo in the Big Dipper's outline, then played the Heartfelt Melody to link their starlight and awakened a spring that poured from his left eye.
• The Literary Dragon Turtle entered the starlight spring to erase its name from the registry of fate, while Tianquan Wenxing Bamboo asked Li Ye for the Sage Book.
• After Li Ye recited Heaven's Questions, darkness swallowed Jianmu's barrier and flooded into his Jian Tree World.

Li Ye successfully transformed the Wenxing Bamboo into a Big Dipper formation with the Star Spring, creating a new spirit plant and a Wenqi Star Turtle, then requested more materials to continue refining them. The academy’s Four Gentlemen arrived to inspect his results, while Chess Gentleman stayed behind to see his other new varieties.

• Li Ye arranged seven thousand Wenxing Bamboo across a Cloud Treasure sky curtain, and the Big Dipper Star Spring formed a waterfall that altered his Lesser World and transformed the Literary Dragon Turtle into a Wenqi Star Turtle.
• Li Ye used Star Spring water and Mountain Spirit’s spell art to unite seven Wenxing Bamboo into one Big Dipper Wenxing Bamboo, then requested another batch of bamboo and turtles and began further cultivation.
• Di Sui agreed with Su Xing Zhenren that Li Ye would receive his due reward and support for cooperation with the Four Seasons Sect, then put Su Xing to sleep for ten years with a flood of historical information.
• Zhuge Ce visited to see Li Ye’s perfected Wenxing Bamboo, and the academy’s Four Gentlemen arrived to inspect it on the Academy Head’s orders.
• Li Ye revealed that he had also cultivated mutated Myriad Sinking Bamboo and Still Ink Moss, and Chess Gentleman remained behind to examine them after the others departed.

Li Ye demonstrated his transformed Myriad Sinking Bamboo and Still Ink Moss to Chess Gentleman, who was impressed by their potential for Confucian cultivators. At the Spirit Demon Repository, Di Sui praised Li Ye’s Wenqi Star Turtle, offered him academy tokens and opportunities, and arranged for him to improve papermaking methods with the Four Seasons Sect before his trip to Du Su Mountain.

• Li Ye showed Chess Gentleman Bamboo Wood Ants that transformed into Confucian tools and produced shoots containing literary aura.
• Li Ye demonstrated Still Ink Moss cultivated inside Void Ink Silkworm cocoons, using its ink to store a Spirit Stone within the character for Dao.
• Chess Gentleman told Li Ye that the Seven-Star Literary Bamboo’s flaw had been resolved and brought him to meet Di Sui and Su Xing Zhenren.
• Di Sui gave Li Ye scroll fragments and a Book Mountain Token, then offered a Sea of Learning Token in exchange for the Wenqi Star Turtle and Li Ye’s help cultivating spirit plants.
• Su Xing Zhenren declined to hand over the Wenqi Star Turtle immediately and proposed discussing cooperation after the Four Seasons Sect cultivated more of them.
• Li Ye agreed to improve two papermaking methods, and Di Sui promised him access to Book Mountain and Sea of Learning after his return from Du Su Mountain.

Lu Qingce used ink from the newly sold Void Ink Silkworms and Sky-Floating Stone to send articles into Bitter Journey Academy’s Celestial Image Mural, prompting a rush of scholars and teachers. Li Ye returned to find the Dew-Bearing Magnolia Tree on the verge of a breakthrough, caught between becoming a deity and advancing along the immortal path.

• Lu Qingce rushed to Bitter Journey Bookstore and bought a Myriad Sinking Bamboo Ant and a Still Ink Moss Silkworm after scholars crowded the shop.
• Lu Qingce discovered the Bamboo-Wood Spirit Ant could transform into many forms and communicate with him, then bought a Pocket Mountain-River Box to house it.
• Lu Qingce used ink from the Void Ink Silkworm and Sky-Floating Stone to send an article into the Celestial Image Mural, drawing down pure literary qi.
• Other scholars copied Lu Qingce, and academy teachers concluded that Void Ink Silkworm ink benefited the mural and joined the rush to obtain it.
• Li Ye hurried back to his cave abode after the Spirit Vine reported that the Dew-Bearing Magnolia Tree had exceeded Golden Core-level spiritual power and was absorbing divine power.
• Li Ye saw that the tree was torn between becoming a deity and becoming a Transformation-Form Golden Core, and considered which path it should take.

Li Ye helped the Dew-Bearing Magnolia Tree resolve the chaos of its many absorbed consciousnesses and choose the immortal path while enfeoffing its companions as gods. The tree became the Golden Core Tree Immortal Li Yulan, and Li Ye discovered the Earth Book Fragment could awaken souls within its domain as well as support a growing Magnolia Blessed Land.

• Li Ye used the Immortal Light of the Heartfelt Melody to calm the Dew-Bearing Magnolia Tree’s consciousnesses and subdue its Crystalline Spirit Bees.
• Li Ye activated the Earth Book Fragment, forming an Earth Womb Membrane around the tree and its bees so the tree could become an immortal while its companions became gods.
• The Dew-Bearing Magnolia Tree endured its tribulation, and Li Ye gave it a Glass Honey Pearl to refine as its natal Magic Treasure.
• The tree transformed into a young man, whom Li Ye named Li Yulan, and Li Yulan showed him the soul-form magnolias and Crystalline Soul Bees under his protection.
• Li Yulan explained that the Earth Book could awaken souls that died within its range, provided they remained under its control.
• Li Ye surveyed the Magnolia Blessed Land, noting its improved honey and immortal nectar, and considered rebuilding its earth, spiritual, and water veins.

Li Ye completed the Magnolia Spirit Ground’s transformation, gave Li Yulan new spirit veins, and arranged sales of its valuable honey. While exploring his cave abode, he discovered that the Moon Spirit Pearl Clam was nurturing Gleaming Silver Osmanthus Pearls, then used moonlight and starlight to awaken them and sensed a Golden Core-level presence.

• Li Ye used the Earth Book to view the life panels of everything in the Magnolia Spirit Ground and gave Li Yulan ten fourth-grade spirit veins to rebuild its earth veins.
• After half a year, Li Ye and Li Yulan completed the spirit ground’s independent circulation and suspended it above the earth; Li Ye promised Li Yulan twenty percent of the honey sales.
• Spirit Vine told Li Ye that Crystalline Soul Honey had become highly sought after and that Yang Ke wanted to buy some; Li Ye said to supply him as long as the sect’s needs were met.
• Li Ye decided to stay with Spirit Vine, encountered the Beavers, and gave them books and writing materials, ordering them and their children to study.
• Li Ye rode a bamboo boat to the island in the lake, where he found Gleaming Silver Osmanthus Pearls inside the Moon Spirit Pearl Clam’s shells.
• Li Ye illuminated the clam with moonlight and starlight, causing it to release a terrifying Golden Core-level aura, and gripped his Sun-Moon Rings as spiritual power rose.